1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a radio wave absorbent and a manufacturing method thereof. More specifically, it relates to a radiowave absorbent comprising a mixture of magnetic particles and a resin material or ceramic material and a manufacturing method thereof.
2. Description of the Related Art
In electronic equipments or communication systems, radiowave absorbents have been used for absorbing radiowaves from the outside which constitute external disturbances or radiowaves leaking from the inside, to prevent noises or radiowave interference thereby obtaining stable functions. For such radiowave absorbents, those radiowave absorbents comprising sintered spinel type ferrite, sintered ferrite of hexagonal system or flaky soft magnetic metal materials formed into particles and mixing the particles with a resin into a composite material have been put to practical use so far. Existent radiowave absorbents described above absorb radiowaves in wave bands of several MHz to several GHz.
Material parameters relevant to the characteristics in such radio wave absorbents are complex dielectric constant xcex5 and complex permeability xcexc at high frequency. Among them, xcexcxe2x80x3 as the imaginary component of the complex permeability xcexc (=xcexcxe2x80x2xe2x88x92jxcexcxe2x80x3) concerns the radiowave absorption characteristics in the radiowave absorbents in magnetic materials.
However, since reduction of the size and increase in the working frequency have been progressed for the equipments, problems in view of electromagnetic wave circumstances such as noises emitted from printed circuit board that give undesired effects on other equipments or erroneous operation caused by external electromagnetic waves have become serious. As the countermeasure, methods of changing the wiring pattern of printed circuit boards or using parts for countermeasure have been predominant. The methods involve drawbacks such as requirement for the cost of modifying the design or parts, or taking much time for obtaining products.
On the other hand, since radiowave absorbents that absorb unnecessary electromagnetic waves and convert them into heat lead to reduction of causal noises per se, it is said that they are useful for the drastic solution of the problems in view of the electromagnetic wave circumstance. However, the size of the equipments has been reduced more and more, the mounting density of various semiconductor devices mounted on substrates has been increased outstandingly, and the electromagnetic wave circumstance has been worsened, so that the space for disposing absorbents for the countermeasure has been decreased further.
In order to solve them, it is necessary to increase the radiowave absorbing performance of the radiowave absorbents. Further, as seen in the trend of using GHz band for CPU, working frequency has become higher and increase of the frequency has been demanded strongly also for the radiowave absorbents.
In view of the above, for radiowave absorption sheets or electromagnetic interference suppressor sheet as EMC (electromagnetic compatibility) countermeasure for keeping the electromagnetic circumstance appropriate, radiowave absorbents formed by compositing a spinel type ferrite powder or a flat soft magnetic metal powder with a resin into a composite magnetic material has been developed. However, there has been a limit for the applicable frequency, that is, up to 1 GHz for the spinel type ferrite and up to several GHz for the soft magnetic metal. For solving the problem, the present inventors have developed a radiowave absorbent using soft magnetic metal powder of a disk-like shape, which can increase the applicable frequency to a high frequency band of 10 GHz or higher.
FIG. 7 is a schematic view for preparing a disk-like magnetic material from a thin film.
As shown in the figure, a disk-like magnetic material is obtained by forming a thin film by way of to a base film 1 by way of a mask 2 using, for example, sputtering, vapor deposition or CVD. The drawing shows a vapor deposition process using an Ar beam 4 in which a material such as an Fe based magnetic material is used as a target 3. At first, molten metal is evaporated from the target 3 made of an Fe based magnetic material by way of a mask 3 formed with a pattern of a plurality of apertures (not illustrated) and deposited on the base film 1.
Successively, the mask 2 is removed. Then, fine disk-like particles 5 as the metal magnetic material of the disk shape are deposited and remain on the base film 1. The disk-like fine particles 5 are peeled from the base film 1 to prepare a disk-like metal magnetic material. However, the method of preparing the magnetic material from the thin film involves a problem of requiring much cost.
FIG. 8 is a schematic view for manufacturing disk-like magnetic material from fine spherical powdery particles.
As shown in the drawing, spherical particles 7 are prepared by an atomizing method or a chemical deposition method. In the chemical deposition method, an iron metal salt is reduced to deposit fine iron particles. The atomizing method is to be described later. The spherical particle 7 can be formed while properly adjusting the diameter about from several hundreds nm to several tens xcexcm depending on the design conditions of the radiowave absorbents used. Such spherical particles are crushed by applying a physical force of a stamp mill to form fine flat disk-like particles 8.
However, the method of preparing the flat powder from the spherical powder involves a problem that the yield of the powder with a uniform grain size and well arranged disk-like shape is low.
Further, while the method described above can obtain high permeability as shown by the following formula (1) expressing the product of the resonance frequency and the permeability but the resonance frequency is low. Accordingly, it can not cope with such high frequency band in excess of 10 GHz to be expected in the feature.                                           f            r                    ⁡                      (                                          μ                r                            -              1                        )                          =                                            γ              ·                              I                s                                                    3              ⁢                              πμ                0                                              ⁢                      (                                                            1                  2                                ⁢                                                                            H                      A1                                                              H                      A1                                                                                  +                                                1                  2                                ⁢                                                                            H                      A2                                                              H                      A1                                                                                            )                                              (        1        )            
in which fr: magnetic resonance frequency, xcexcr: complex permeability, xcex3: gyro magnetic constant, Is: saturated magnetization, xcexc0: permeability in vacuum (xcexc0=4xcfx80xc3x9710xe2x88x927), HA1:anisotropy within the plane of the disk, HA2:anisotropy in the direction vertical from the plane of the disk.
This invention has been accomplished in view of the foregoing prior art and intends to provide a radiowave absorbent capable of efficiently absorbing radiowaves even in a saved space and coping with high frequency band, as well as a manufacturing method thereof.
For attaining the foregoing object, the present invention provides a radiowave absorbent in which magnetic particles comprising a soft magnetic metal material are mixed with a matrix of a polymeric material or ceramics, wherein the magnetic particles are of an elliptic plate shape.
According to this constitution, since the magnetic particles are formed into an elliptic flat shape, the frequency limit can be increased to a high frequency band as exceeding 10 GHz, and a radiowave absorbent working at high frequency with high magnetic permeability characteristics can be obtained.
In a preferred constituent example, a plurality of radiowave absorbents of different radiowave absorption characteristics are formed by lamination.
In accordance with the this constitution, a radiowave absorbent reduced in the size and the thickness, capable of absorbing radiowaves in a plurality of frequency bands each at an optimal efficiency can be obtained by forming a plurality layers of radiowave absorbents by properly selecting various kinds of materials of different radiowave absorption characteristics.
In a preferred constituent example, it is formed into a sheet or paste shape.
In accordance with the constitution, a form easy to actual use as the radiowave absorbent can be obtained.
Further, the present invention provides a method of manufacturing a radiowave absorbent forming fine spherical particles comprising a soft magnetic metal material, colliding the fine spherical particles against an inclined flat surface by a gas jetting pressure to form magnetic particles of an elliptic plate shape, and mixing the magnetic particles of the elliptic plate shape with a matrix of a polymeric material or ceramics.
In accordance with this constitution, elliptic plate particles of uniform grain size with well arranged shape can be produced easily from spherical particles in a great amount, easily and efficiently and at a reduced cost.
In accordance with the present invention, the resonance frequency is increased making it possible to cope with the high frequency by making the form of the soft magnetic metal powder into the elliptic plate shape. The principle of the present invention is to be explained.
In the formula (1) described above, since the anisotropy HA1 within the plane of the disk is small, Fr(xcexcrxe2x88x921) on the left side takes a large value since the anisotropy HA1 within the plane of the disk is small. Further, since the anisotropy is small in the plane, it is easily magnetized to obtain high permeability. However, since the value fr(xcexcrxe2x88x921) is at a constant value, if the permeability xcexcr takes an extremely large value, the value for the resonance frequency fr is small and the permeability is not extended as far as high frequency.
In this case, it is necessary to set the resonance frequency to a high frequency without lowering of the permeability so much. In view of the above, the form of the soft magnetic metal is changed from a circular to an elliptic shape and a weak configurational anisotropy is provided in the direction of the major axis of the ellipsis thereby attaining increase in the resonance frequency. This is because the resonance frequency is generally in proportion with the anisotropic magnetic field HA of the magnetic material as shown by the following equation (2).
frxcex1HAxe2x80x83xe2x80x83(2)
While this somewhat lowers the permeability, since the energy loss shown by the following equation (3) increases by the increase in high frequency, this gives no significant effect on the radiowave absorption characteristic.                     P        =                              1            2                    ⁢          ω          ⁢                      xe2x80x83                    ⁢                      μ            0                    ⁢                      μ            xe2x80x3                    ⁢                      "LeftBracketingBar"                          H              2                        "RightBracketingBar"                                              (        3        )            
in which P: radio wave absorption energy per unit volume (W/m3) xcfx89: angular frequency (=2xcfx80f), xcexc0: permeability in vacuum, xcexcxe2x80x3: imaginary component of the complex permeability (magnetic loss), H: magnetic field intensity of electromagnetic waves applied externally.